Phrenectomy

 Today, I was thinking about how I learned the hard way that my love of art, namely the creating part, does not translate academically. I tried, I really did. Studio classes made me feel inadequate and overlooked, and art history classes made me hate the art world. Being an artist made me hate, well, being an artist. I will keep my collaging as a hobby. But I’m tired of submission/publication fees, juried shows, etc. The art world is a sad, mutilated corpse of what it should be. It’s all white cube galleries and whatever the hell this year’s Whitney Biennial is. I haven’t seen anything, only read reviews. I think it just opened today. People are praising it for being “non-controversial” and “readable”; they’re saying you don’t need a PhD to understand it. That’s so embarrassing. First of all, if you need a PhD to understand art, you may be an idiot. Secondly, if my art were ever “praised” using such terms, I’d actually kill myself. I think about the things I want my art to say that I don’t have the courage or vocabulary for, and if any of it ever fell into the category of “accessible or “tame”, that might be it for me. I’d go apeshit. What real artist wants to be understood and enjoyed by the masses? Those who make art that is for everybody are liars, fakers, and traitors. Art isn’t meant to be highly agreeable; it’s not supposed to invoke the absence of thought or subdue the mind. At least my art isn’t meant to do that. Creative differences may exist across the board, but never have I ever met an artist who truly wanted to have their work deemed palatable to the general population. That’s not to say that I don’t know artists who want to make beautiful art. I assume a lot of artists want to make beautiful art. But beauty is subjective, and these people are not concerned with whether their art is seen as beautiful to everyone. They do their thing, they make it their way, and it’s beautiful to them. It’s okay with these people if not everyone understands the vision. That’s the type of shit I like to see. If your vision is universally understood, then it is a boring ass perspective and likely an idea regurgitated a thousand times over in a very blatant way. If you’re going to make a piece of art with a cliche message, at least do everyone a favor and obscure the message a bit. Back to the Biennial. I’m not the Whitney’s biggest fan; a lot of people know this. But imagine having the type of platform this museum has and not exercising it to its full capacity? If the reviews of the show are to be trusted, then this is a huge flop. It seems to me like the Whitney is trying to keep from getting its hands dirty. I wonder why… Maybe because they love to exploit black artists, and love to censor pro-Palestine artists. Maybe it’s because if there’s no visible controversy, that must mean everyone is happy, which means more money/business. If they sweep the violence that surrounds us every day under the rug for a few minutes, maybe everyone will forget that the ex-vice-chairman of the board manufactured tear gas and rubber bullets to be used on our own soil against our own people. But that’s just my two cents on the whole ordeal. If you have conflicting ideas or your own two cents, I’d love to hear them. Be good to yourselves.